


we're sky bound

by boombashkas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Pining, Tumblr Prompt, but her scene was my favorite by far, hazel isn't there for long enough, mentions of jercy brotp, that went into a completely unplanned direction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 06:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3125153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombashkas/pseuds/boombashkas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's going to be an uneventful evening for Jason, lying on the couch while channel surfing, eating junk food and having blinking contests with the cat. </p><p>And then he gets a text.</p><p>(prompt from tumblr user magileine: "slides into your askbox how do you feel about "answered your call for a pick-up from a drunken party even though you’re my brother’s friend and I’ve only met you once because it sounded like you really needed to get out of there AU" for jasico except roommate/sister/whatever instead of brother?")</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're sky bound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunwukong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunwukong/gifts).



“Oh, thank god,” Nico says as he climbs into Jason’s car and shuts the door behind him. “I thought you’d never arrive.”

“Sorry, I stopped to get some Cheetos,” Jason holds the bag out to him. “Cheeto?”

“No, thanks,” Nico pulls his jacket closer around himself. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Jason, who was just about to do the very same thing, pauses. 

In all the time Jason’s known Nico di Angelo (and that only through Percy), he’s interacted with him a total of three times:

1\. when Percy asked Jason to show Nico around the school during his first day there. He introduced him to friends and a few teachers, helped him explore the classrooms and the grounds, showed him to his locker, and then told him to come to Jason if he needed anything, and left for class. Despite the fact that the two of them shared the same friends, Nico hardly ever talked to him after that. 

2\. that time Hazel invited all of them to hang out at her and Nico’s house about a month ago. They were watching a movie, and he and Nico discussed one of the scenes while sharing a bowl of popcorn.

3\. right now

so of course he doesn’t know Nico very well, but in all the time he _has_ known him, he doesn’t remember him looking as annoyed as he does now. When Jason had received his mass text asking for a ride home, he’d called Nico back to ask him if he should come, and Nico had sounded desperate enough for Jason to throw the rest of his exciting evening of channel surfing and watching paint dry right out the window. 

“Is everything okay?” he asks.

Nico glares out the window at the house he’d escaped from, which is bursting with loud teenagers and booming with the force of even louder music. “I thought I’d like parties once I had enough friends to go with. As it turns out, parties get annoying after the first fifteen minutes either way. And I really wanted to have fun tonight.”

His voice emanates sadness. Jason doesn’t know Nico well enough to know what he enjoys to do but he has the sudden urge to find out what it is so they can do it together.

Instead of letting Nico in on that creepy thought, he starts the car and says, “Is Hazel coming too?”

“No, Frank will drop her home in a few hours.” As they leave the house behind, Nico peeks up at Jason. “Thanks for picking me up. I hope I didn’t interrupt your Saturday night.”

“It’s all good,” Jason sends him a smile, “I wasn’t doing anything anyway.”

“How come you weren’t at the party? All your friends were there.”

 _All_ our _friends_. Jason shrugs. “I don’t feel like it sometimes. I just spent all day yesterday with the guys and it drained me a little, so I thought I’d stay in for today. And of course Percy called me a party pooper because of it.”

“But it’s _Piper’s_ party. Shouldn’t you be there? Being her boyfriend and all?”

Jason snorts so hard, he actually gets a little Cheeto dust up his nose. Nico looks faintly surprised, like he didn’t expect Jason to have the ability to mega snort.

“Piper and I haven’t been together for at least a year,” he informs Nico. “What made you think we were dating?”

“You guys act that way,” Nico shrugs. He’s slouched enough that the collar of his jacket brushes his hair away from his ears. They’re not as small as he’d thought they’d be. He wonders if Nico’s one of those boys who has ears too big for his head. For some reason, Nico with Dumbo-sized ears makes him smile.

“But then again,” Nico continues, oblivious to Jason’s smiling, “You act that way around Percy too, and you’re not dating him.” He side-eyes Jason. “Are you?”

“God, no,” Jason laughs. “That would be a disaster. I don’t think anyone but Annabeth can handle him. I’m not really dating anyone actually. Hey, do we go right at this turn or left? I can’t remember which way your house is.”

“It’s to the right,” Nico says miserably, “But I don’t really want to go home right now.”

Jason slows the car, glancing at him uncertainly. “Oh.”

“Sorry, you probably have somewhere to go after this, don’t you?”

“Not really. Like I said, I was just recharging today.”

“I don’t mean to be a burden,” Nico continues, the sad pout still permanently on his face. “I was just hoping to have fun tonight and going home after a horrible ten minutes at a party just seems extremely depressing.”

It does, if Jason’s being honest. Everyone knows how horrible it is to be disappointed by something you were looking forward to, but Nico looks especially dejected. Jason knows from what Hazel’s told him that Nico’s not the most extroverted person. If he came to a party hoping to have fun, he must have built it up in his head a lot. In fact, everyone at school had been excited about it, talking for ages about how great it was going to be. Jason wasn’t planning at all, but even he felt a little second hand anticipation.

“You could still have fun,” he suggests.

Nico looks at him in horror. “Please don’t take me back to that party.”

“No, I won’t,” Jason laughs. “Tell me – when do you have to be home?”

“Not for a couple of hours,” Nico says, confused.

“Great,” Jason beams at him. “Where’s the one place we could go which could make this a fun day again?”

Nico’s narrowed his eyes now but there’s a smile spreading on his face, like he’s getting it. “No way,” he says. “For me?”

“For you,” Jason nods, and he doesn’t know why, but he blushes. Nico grins at him.

“I have a sudden craving for gelato,” he announces. He’s sitting forward in his seat now, his fingers tapping at his jeans and his lips tugging into a smile – he looks like a little kid on the way to Disney World. “And I know just the place.”

~*~

“But I could’ve sworn,” Nico says around a mouthful of gelato, “that you and Piper were holding hands that time we were all watching that movie at my house.”

Jason’s head snaps up so quickly, he swears he hears it crack. “You remember that?”

The two of them sit across from each other at a pretty little darkwood table in the gelato shop Nico had lead Jason to. Jason’s surprised he’s never been here before but then again, it’s quite far away from his house and not on any of the routes he takes every day. The whole place is done in bright colors but the lighting is low and a pleasant warmth engulfs the room – enough for Nico to take off his jacket and sling it around the back of his chair. If Jason strains his ears, he can hear a light melodious tune playing from the speakers, but it’s completely overpowered by the noise of customers around them, and there are a _lot_ of customers.

All the gelato flavors had complicated names in Italian and even if they hadn’t, Jason would never have been able to choose one. Thankfully, Nico chooses for Jason, giving bright smiles to all the employees who, to Jason’s surprise, greet Nico like he’s an old friend. 

Jason’s not complaining. He and Nico actually get an extra scoop of gelato, and it seems like it’s a regular thing for Nico. 

He visibly brightens inside the shop too. That momentary twinkle in his eyes now has permanent hold, and underneath the low-hanging lights, he looks like he’s glowing. Jason thinks it’s really lame that he’s only spent a maximum of half an hour around Nico di Angelo, and he’s already drooling into his gelato.

They’ve been in here for ten minutes, and Nico’s turned out to be a lot more talkative than Jason thought. It’s not even a matter of breaking through his shell – his shell is already cracked wide open if anyone would care to take a peek. 

What’s even more surprising is that Nico di Angelo is funny. Jason already knew that from hearing his friends talk about him, but sitting across from him, trying not to choke on ice cream as he laughs, he thinks the real thing is a lot better than hearing about it.

On top of that, they aren’t running out of things to talk about. For every word Jason says, Nico has two more. He chuckles quietly at Jason’s jokes and listens closely when Jason talks. The last time Jason became friends this quickly with someone was with Percy, and that was only because meeting each other butt-naked means you’re instantly best friends for life (long story).

“Of course I remember,” he replies, licking his spoon clean. “Why wouldn’t I? You guys were definitely holding hands.”

“I don’t think so, but if we were, it was probably because I was scared during a scene.”

“We were watching How To Train Your Dragon 2.”

“His father’s death is really traumatic, okay? I’m surprised I didn’t break down crying.”

Nico laughs, and Jason joins in. His sides are aching from all the laughing he’s done in the past few minutes. “See, isn’t this more fun than a party?” Nico asks.

“Definitely. But I like parties too, especially when there are a lot of our friends there.”

Nico shakes his head. “I don’t. There’s always this one person who drags me to the party and then abandons me until everyone is off doing god-knows-what with their friends and I’m standing by myself.”

Nico doesn’t sound bitter as he says it – more amused than anything, like he can’t imagine why anyone would invite him to a party in the first place. “Who was it this time?”

“Hazel. I don’t mind, really. People have best friends that they have the most fun with and I’m definitely not going to stop my sister from having fun just so I don’t look lonely.”

“But you’re not lonely. You have a lot of friends.”

“Well, most of them are Hazel’s friends,” Nico says off-handedly, his eyes wandering around the shop. “I think I’m only friends with Reyna and Frank. Hazel, of course and Annabeth too maybe.”

“And me,” Jason blurts.

Nico’s eyes snap back to him. “Uh,” he says, “we’ve never really talked?”

Jason can feel his ears burning, and this time it isn’t because of the heating. “We’re talking now, aren’t we? And anyway, I already considered you my friend.”

“And you never talked to me.”

Jason’s jaw drops. “I did too! Your first day, I gave you a whole tour of the school and then _you_ never talked to _me_.”

“How was I supposed to know you wanted me to?”

Jason can’t believe this. “I _told_ you to come to _me_ if you needed anything.”

“For school-related stuff.”

“No, for _anything_ ,” Jason throws his hands up in exasperation.

“You said if I needed help.”

“And you _never_ did?”

“Well, yeah, but I asked other people.”

“But I told you to come to me!”

It’s at this point that Jason realizes that Nico’s smiling and trying very unsuccessfully to hide it behind his hand. Jason’s being laughed at, and he doesn’t even mind.

“Yeah, okay,” he says, dropping his spoon in his empty cup and giving him a grudging smile. “So it’s a two-way street.”

“And it’s been completely empty this whole time,” Nico says as he finishes off his gelato. “It’s just a tiny narrow lane now. No one even remembers it’s there.”

“Don’t worry,” Jason says, pushing his gelato to the centre of the table so they can share. “After tonight, it’ll be a highway.”

~*~

Once they’re in the car again, Jason goes back to eating Cheetos while Nico watches him with mild disgust and unending fascination. It makes Jason feel a little nervous. “Cheetos after gelato,” Nico says. “Do you hate your taste buds?”

“Percy once ate a French vanilla cake soaked in Coke and topped with ketchup,” Jason tells him proudly, like he’s talking about his son making honor roll. “It was a dare.”

“Let me guess. _You_ gave him the dare?”

Jason has to bite his lip to keep from sniggering. “Only because I knew he’d do it.”

Nico shakes his head at Jason in an _oh, you_ manner, as if he’s been friends with Jason for years and has grown used to the things he does. Honestly, Jason doesn’t know why they didn’t try to be friends before this. To think that an hour ago, one of Jason’s top three interactions with Nico was sharing a bowl of popcorn with him.

“What’s this?” Nico’s holding up two pieces of paper he apparently found on Jason’s dashboard. “Uh, sorry, I probably shouldn’t be snooping.”

“It’s fine. I think they’re bowling coupons.”

“Bowling,” Nico says as he inspects them. “Are you planning on using them anytime soon?”

“I kind of forgot about them. I probably should before they expire.”

Nico squints at Jason. “They expire tomorrow. And guess what?” He waves them around. “There’s two of them.”

~*~

“So _this_ is why you wanted to play,” Jason accuses as he watches Nico celebrate another strike. “You’re _good_ at this.”

Nico shrugs. “It’s not that hard.” He’s trying to sound dismissive but there’s a permanent grin on his face and his cheeks are flushed by all the excitement. Bowling with Nico makes Jason feel like he isn’t excited enough about it and ‘being overly excited by bowling’ wasn’t something Jason had ever associated with Nico.

Then again, he never had anything to associate Nico with, so there’s that.

The highlights of Nico’s score so far have been two strikes and three spares. Jason’s had a decent number of spares too but he had a lot gutter balls as well – he’d be humiliated if he didn’t like the evil little smile that appeared on Nico’s face whenever he missed pins.

In fact, whenever his ball rolls down the lane, he can hear Nico behind him whispering, “Gutter ball, gutter ball, gutter ball…” like a mantra. More than once, he finished it off with a “Yes! Gutter ball!” It was all extremely malicious and strangely cute.

“It’s only because I’m nearsighted,” Jason complains at one point. “If I could see that far as well as you do, I’d hit them too.”

“Oh, please,” Nico snorts as he chooses a ball. “The target’s large enough even for a nearsighted person to see and besides, you’re wearing glasses.”

“But I’m still naturally disadvantaged. You have perfect vision! It’s not fair.”

“Alright then,” Nico says. “Let’s make it unfair for both of us. You bowl without glasses. I bowl with. Okay?”

Jason blinks. “Uh. That’s not a good idea.”

“You’re just scared you’ll lose by even more.”

And usually a taunt like that wouldn’t work but strangely enough, Jason actually wants to impress him. He takes off his glasses and places them in Nico’s outstretched hands. “Don’t trip over your feet.”

~*~

Nico with Jason’s glasses on is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever seen. 

First of all, Nico’s eyes are already bigger than Jason’s, and the lenses make them even larger, so much so that Jason cracks up whenever he looks at him. His nose is also smaller, so the glasses keep slipping downwards. They would probably fall right off his face if not for the size of his ears.

“The size of my _what_?”

“No offense!” Jason says quickly, holding up his hands. “They’re not _too_ big or anything.”

But Nico doesn’t seem angry at all. In fact, he’s laughing so hard, he can’t even aim. “They _are_ a bit floppy,” he agrees.

“No they’re not,” Jason says, insulted. “Don’t be mean to yourself. Your ears are great.”

Nico laughs even more, practically slapping Jason’s glasses up to his eyes when they slip down again. He’s still shaking with silent laughter when he bowls and he knocks almost all of the pins down.

Jason studies their scoreboard while Nico celebrates his great aim. Even with the glasses blurring his vision, Nico’s managed to beat Jason.

“So,” Nico calls, smugness already seeping into his voice, “who won?”

“Shut up.”

Still sniggering, Nico hands Jason his glasses and then rubs at his eyes. “I’m a hundred percent sure your glasses destroyed my perfect vision.”

Nico’s knuckles cover nearly his whole face. When he takes his hands away, his eyes look wide and wet and disoriented for a moment and Jason’s overcome with the urge to –

To what, exactly? Hug him, maybe, or hold his hand. Not kiss him, because that would be weird – they’ve only just started actually hanging out as friends. He can’t possible _like_ Nico that way.

Except when Nico smirks at his score, Jason’s heart _tugs_ – when he bends over to take off his rented bowling shoes, his shirt rides up and Jason’s fingers _twitch_ – when he blinks up at him and Jason sees the indent of his glasses on the sides of his nose, he feels his throat swell with unsaid words but the only thing that comes out is: “Where to next?”

“You sure you don’t have somewhere to be?” Nico says reluctantly. “I can have fun on my own, I think – or try anyway.”

“Probably, but _I_ can’t have fun on my own. I’m definitely going to need you around.”

And just like that, like he’s flipped a switch, Nico’s eyes light up, the dark depths glittering brown and gold, and the rest of his face follows, his lips pushing up, joy gathering in the corners of his mouth – and Jason thinks there’s no possible excuse anyone can have to justify making someone like him sad, especially when it takes so little to keep him happy.

~*~

“We’re not supposed to be doing this, you know,” Jason says, following Nico to the backyard. “Someone could catch us.”

“There’s no one here.” Nico marches ahead of Jason, maneuvering around the house and touching its walls with his fingertips. “They’re not supposed to move in until next week. There’s no one to catch us.”

“I don’t know,” Jason answers, keeping his eyes on the ground so he doesn’t trip over the overgrown weeds. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

He would have barreled Nico over if Nico hadn’t grabbed his arms to slow him down. Under the house’s shadow, Jason can’t make his features out properly but he thinks he seems uncertain. “If you don’t want to, we can go back,” Nico offers. “We can do something you want – or you could drop me home if you want to do that.”

Jason rolls his eyes. A lot of things have changed over the past two hours but one thing that hasn’t – Nico still thinks he’s forcing Jason into spending the evening with him. “I don’t want to drop you home.”

“But you don’t want us to be here either?”

Jason looks up at the house. It’s no different from most houses he’s seen – two storeys, stucco roof, a compact front lawn and a large backyard bordered with an old red-brown fence. It’s obvious no one’s lived here in a while and that whoever does will have to get some maintenance work done, but he doesn’t see what’s so special that Nico’s including it in his Jason-sponsored fun day.

“I’m fine with it,” he says, eyes roving over the house, “But why are we here?”

Nico just turns and leads Jason across the backyard. The grass is overgrown, pale, weathered and thinner where trees emerge from the ground, towering high above the two of them. Nico walks toward the largest of these trees, then glances at Jason.

“Do you know how to climb trees?” he asks, already taking his jacket off.

Jason’s eyebrows shoot up. “Do _you_?”

“I just want to be sure you won’t fall down,” Nico says, smiling at Jason’s offended tone. “It’s an old tree. We’ll have to be careful where we put our weight so the branches don’t snap off.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

Nico laughs. “I have to say, I refuse to believe _that_ ,” he motions to the entirety of Jason, “is all muscle.”

“Yeah well,” Jason places a hand on the lowest branch, wedges a foot between the tree’s thick roots. “Watch as _all this fat_ beats your skinny butt to the top.”

He waits until he hears the breathy sound of Nico’s laugh and then takes off.

Jason does beat Nico to the top, but only because Nico’s too busy hanging off of boughs and laughing because of Jason’s wheezing and whining about how tree-climbing didn’t used to be this hard (he might have slightly exaggerated the wheezing and whining for Nico’s sake). Jason makes sure not to scrape any pieces of wood off with his shoes and send them raining down at Nico. He calls out hand- and foot-holds for Nico to use, but whenever he looks back, Nico’s right at his heels, already reaching out for them. He’s skinny but that doesn’t equate to being weak – he’s actually a lot more nimble than Jason is. Jason’s surprised by how _not_ surprised he is to discover that.

The branches scrape against his palms and the leaves slap against his face but any annoyance he would have felt is drowned out by the adrenaline pumping through his veins. And not even half of it is because of their race – it’s because of the little tingle on the back of his neck, a signal that someone’s watching him. _Someone_ being Nico.

His suspicion is only further confirmed when he looks back at him at intervals and sees him looking directly at him. It makes him feel a little self-conscious – he’s huffing and sweating after all (he really needs to get into shape, this is just embarrassing), so he doesn’t really know what Nico would be staring at – _if_ he’s staring at him in the first place. 

Once Nico points out a sturdy branch, Jason tests its strength with his own weight and then holds his hand out to help Nico onto it. They both sit side-by-side on the branch, Jason leaning against the tree trunk and trying not to pant, mentally congratulating himself for winning the race.

He hadn’t even realized how far they’d climbed. The tree is just that little bit higher than the house itself, so they’d have a great view of the whole town if the house wasn’t in the way. At least Nico seems happy enough that way.

“How come we never talked before today?” Nico asks finally.

His voice is low, quiet and strangely content, and even though they’re on someone else’s property, it makes Jason feel safe. “I guess we just never had reason to. I hardly ever saw you.”

“You said you considered me a friend.”

“The friend of my friend is my friend, isn’t that what they say? And anyway, you always seemed cool.”

Nico glances at him, surprised. “I did?”

“Sure,” Jason sits up and moves closer. “Hazel told me you beat Frank every time you guys play Mythomagic. How can anyone beat _Frank_ , especially at _Mythomagic_? That game is hard.”

“It is?”

“Yeah!” Jason’s not even trying to sound encouraging, he’s genuinely gushing now. “And she says you’re multilingual – English, Italian, Greek, Latin. I always thought I was smart for knowing two languages but four is just amazing.”

Nico’s cheeks are bright pink by now. “It’s not that difficult, really.”

“Hazel’s always talking about you,” Jason continues. “Frank and Reyna too. You know, a lot of people probably assume you’re really quiet and closed-off and I would’ve too, except they’ve told me you’re not like that at all. Hazel’s told me a million stories of how good a brother you are, and I think Frank and Reyna think of you as their brother too.” He shifts closer. “And obviously now _I_ have first-hand experience of how great you are.”

“Thanks,” he says, sending Jason a surprised smile, “You too.”

“ _You too_? God, Nico, stop with all the compliments, you’re making me blush.”

Nico laughs, loud and full and carefree. “If you think I’m going to wax lyrical over you, let me refer you back to the part where people assume I’m quiet and closed-off.”

“Fair enough,” Jason nods, smiling at him. “Now do you want to tell me what’s so special about this house that we’re standing on someone’s property? Well, hovering ten feet above someone’s property.”

Nico rolls his eyes at Jason. He’s been doing that a lot. Jason wonders when Nico’s going to start doing ridiculous things in front of him, so he can roll his eyes at him too. He’s definitely going to be around when that time comes.

“This was our old house. I grew up here.”

Jason frowns, confused. “But your first day of school was this year?”

“That’s because we moved back. We did live here, up until I was ten.”

“Really? Then why did you move away?”

“My father just didn’t want to live here anymore.” He’s quiet for a beat, two, and when he speaks again, his voice is so quiet, Jason wouldn’t have been sure he was meant to hear him if not for the way Nico shuffled closer to him. “Not after my sister died.”

Jason’s caught off-guard for a few seconds, and then he remembers. “Bianca. Uh, sorry – Hazel told me.”

“It’s fine, she was Hazel’s sister too. But when we were younger, Hazel lived with her mom. It was just Bianca and me.”

He’s shivering now. He left his jacket hung on one of the lower branches. Jason would go and get it, except he really doesn’t want to make the wrong move now. Not when Nico’s got the most vulnerable look on his face as he gazes at the house, his fingers digging into his jeans, his eyes dark and shining like the night sky above.

Jason has an older sister too. She could never stand his dad and their stepmother, so she moved out as soon as she could, but not a day goes by without her texting or calling or Skyping him. Whenever she visits, she spends most of her time with him, and the distance has never gotten between them. Jason never feels like he’s lost her and he genuinely can’t imagine what life would be like if he did.

“That was my room,” Nico’s pointing at the right-most window, one that’s shuttered now. “The one next to it was Bianca’s but she didn’t have a window to the backyard, so whenever we wanted to sneak out, we used my room.”

“Sneak out?”

A small smile plays on Nico’s face. “We were really troublesome kids. We loved playing here, especially in this tree, but Dad was adamant about our bedtime. We could never sneak out through the front door – his room was downstairs and he always heard it – so we made our way down from my window.”

Jason peers at it. It’s not very high up and it would be easy for someone his height to climb down, but Nico was really young then. “How did you do it? Looks dangerous.”

Nico huffs a laugh. “Maybe for you. Did you _see_ me climb this tree?”

“Hey, I did it too!”

“Yeah, and you were huffing and puffing the whole way.” He wrinkles his nose. “Not very attractive, let me tell you.”

“I still beat you, didn’t I?”

It’s probably not the right thing to say when a person’s obviously trying to seem happy while talking about their dead sister, but Nico doesn’t mind. He pats the branch they’re sitting on. “We used to have race up here all the time. I had shorter legs and couldn’t reach as high and I got short of breath easily but I still won every time.”

“She let you win.”

Nico nods, his hand smoothing over the rough tree bark. “She was a good sister.” 

He doesn’t say anything more for a long while. Jason watches his hand go back and forth. “I’m sorry about your sister.” 

It sounds horribly shallow and it’s something Nico must have heard a million times, but he gives Jason a grateful smile, like that’s all he wanted to hear. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. And I have Hazel now.” He takes a deep breath. “I mean, I still miss her. But it’s getting better.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, doesn’t coming back to this house bring bad memories?”

“Not at all,” Nico smiles at the house like it’s an old friend. “Only good ones. In fact, when we moved back, I was hoping we’d be coming here but my father said he couldn’t stand this place.” He starts chewing at his lip, voice quiet and pensive. “I just wish I could go back in there. I didn’t get to explore as I’d liked last time.”

“Last time?”

Nico looks away from the house and studies Jason like he’s trying to make up his mind about something. Finally he says, “You want to know something I haven’t told anyone? Not even Hazel?”

Jason shrugs. “If you want to tell me, sure.”

“I went into the house yesterday.”

“You what?”

“I went inside,” Nico nods towards the house, his words becoming quicker with excitement, “I was feeling really crappy yesterday so I came here to just hang around up in this tree, but then I thought about how easy it would be to just climb back into my bedroom window the way I used to when I was younger, so I tried it.” He moved his hands animatedly as he talked, his smile growing every second. “It was exactly as I remembered it, Jason, every room – except it was all old and dusty and there was no furniture and stuff – but I could see all the marks where I measured my height every month and where Bianca put up her posters and the indents on the floor where my dad had his bookshelves and desks and stuff. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend I was back.”

“Didn’t you get caught?”

Nico deflates a bit. “Well, I did eventually. But the security guard was really nice about it. He told me I shouldn’t come back here though, that they’re going to fix up the house soon for a family moving here next week.”

“And yet here we are.”

Nico laughs almost sheepishly. “I don’t break into places. I didn’t even think of it as breaking in, honestly. But I felt like it yesterday, and today when you said we’d go wherever I had fun… I mean, I know an empty house isn’t _anyone’s_ definition of fun but…”

“It’s okay,” Jason smiles at him, trying to get him to become as excited as before. “I get it. But if you think we’re going to do that again tonight…”

Nico’s already shaking his head. “No, I don’t want to anymore.” When he looks at the house again, there’s a wistful sadness there. Jason internally kicks himself for ruining his energized monologue. “When I got home last night, I thought that maybe I should try to be with living people instead of clinging on to dead ones. That’s why I went to that party today – I thought that if it was fun, it would make me want to hang out with people instead of wandering around other people’s homes.” He laughs once, mirthlessly. “Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

“ _Obviously_ ,” Jason says, pointing to the two of them, “it did.”

Nico hesitates. “I’m not sure you count. We’re only friends for tonight, aren’t we?”

Jason’s smile drops off his face. “Are we?”

“Not that I want to be,” Nico says quickly. “I just thought – come on, do you _really_ want to be friends with me?”

“Yes!” Jason cries, trying not to add a ‘duh’ in there. “What do you think we’ve been doing all night? It’s not a one-day friendship. There’s no such _thing_ as a one-day friendship and even if there was, this isn’t it.”

Nico looks at him warily, like he thinks Jason’s going to tell him he’s kidding and he’s only been babysitting him tonight. It makes Jason feel even more agitated to make him smile. “Really?”

“Yeah. And you know what?” He puts his hands on Nico’s shoulders so he can look into his eyes. “There’s no reason why you should force yourself into going to places you don’t want to. I mean, sure, you should be sociable and get out of your comfort zone and all, but if it doesn’t end up well, it’s okay. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

Nico’s eyebrows are drawn together like he’s trying to process this new information but can’t because he’s always known the opposite. “Okay,” he says slowly.

“And yes, you shouldn’t trespass into other people’s property,” Jason continues, getting worked up now. “But in this case, it’s fine.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Nico glances at his old room’s window, “I can break in again?”

Jason rolls his eyes. “ _No_. I’m saying it’s okay to miss your sister.”

“I thought moving on was a good thing.”

“It is, but that doesn’t mean you have to forget your sister. Or try to.”

Nico gives him a dry smile. “You sound like the therapist my dad made me see when I was ten. Are you sure you two aren’t related?”

“Nico.”

“I know,” he says, shaking his head. “You’re right. I guess coming here just made me emotional.” He looks at Jason through his eyelashes. “Sorry for ruining the fun day with all this doom and gloom.”

Jason’s hands leave his shoulders. “You didn’t ruin it,” he says earnestly, “This is fun.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m serious.” He nudges at Nico’s ankle with his foot. “I’m glad I answered your text. If I hadn’t, I’d be at home watching reruns of sitcoms and gorging on junk food, and we’d never have gotten to know each other.”

“And I would’ve missed out on all this fun.” Nico’s tone sounds sarcastic, but when he looks at Jason, he can tell he isn’t. There’s a silent _thank you_ in his eyes and it’s ridiculous because he has absolutely nothing to be thanking Jason for.

“Exactly,” Jason agrees. “The gelato place and here…”

A smile pops onto Nico’s face. “…beating you at bowling…”

“It was a one-time thing,” Jason says, trying to sound angry even as he sighs in relief at how Nico’s grinning again. 

“Oh, really?” Nico lifts his chin. “I bet I could beat you again. In fact, I could climb down this tree faster than you could.”

Jason doesn’t even hesitate. “You are _so_ on.”

~*~

“So Frank and I are going over to Percy’s house tomorrow to play video games. You should come.”

Nico’s got his legs pulled up onto Jason’s car seat (careful to do it without shoes on so he doesn’t get the seat dirty) and is looking through all the CDs Jason has in his car, which aren’t much. Jason finds it stupid how he keeps getting distracted from driving by Nico’s toes, which are peeking up from under his legs. They’re pink and wiggly, like a baby’s. It’s ridiculous. 

Nico holds up one of the CDs. “Shrek? Really?”

Jason feels his face heat up. “It was a gift from Percy, okay?”

Laughing silently, Nico says, “Sure, I’ll come. As long as I get to kick your butt at least once.” 

Jason pouts. “I thought we could team up. Us versus Frank and Percy.”

“Maybe for a little while, but then I want to be on Frank’s team. Besides,” he flashes Jason a grin, “I want to watch how you and Percy destroy yourselves.”

“Why do you assume Percy and I won’t be a good team?”

“I don’t. I’ll just be surprised if you are. So,” he pops in the Shrek CD, “try and surprise me.”

Nico knows the lyrics to every song that plays. He even gets all the remixes right, taps his fingers and wiggles his toes to the music. Jason’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. He can’t deal with all this cuteness right now.

It’s been almost three hours since Jason picked Nico up from Piper’s party. Their curfews are soon, so they decided to put an end to fun day. Jason’s driving Nico home now and he would feel sad that their time together is over if he wasn’t so excited for the next day. And the next, and the one after that. He still doesn’t know Nico half as well as he’d like to, but that’s okay, because he’s going to love every second of getting to know him better. He has a feeling they’re going to be great friends and – if Nico’s not-so-subtle glances at him are any indication – they might even end up something more.

“I’m glad I went to that party.”

Jason takes his eyes off the road to see Nico smiling softly at him. “Me too.”

“I don’t think I’ll be going to any more of those, though. Especially when people keep leaving me all alone.”

“I don’t think they mean any harm by it. They probably think you’re going to go around and socialize.”

“Yeah, but still,” he turns to look out the window as they turn into his street, and spots his house. “It’s that house there. And hey, I think that’s Frank dropping Hazel off now.”

Nico’s sister stands in the driveway leading up to the house, waving to a car that’s already pulling away from the curb. By the time it does and Hazel turns to head into the house, Jason’s car pulls up.

“Nico?” Hazel says, surprised, walking closer. Nico rolls down the window so she can stick her head in. “Jason? Is that you? And is that… Shrek?”

Nico laughs. Blushing, Jason hurries to turn off the CD. “Percy gave it to me,” he says defensively.

“And you kept it,” Hazel smirks, setting Nico off into another round of laughter.

“You’re just as bad as him,” Jason grumbles. Hazel’s eyebrows rise at that, looking between the two of them. 

“I thought you were going home from the party,” she says to Nico.

“I was, but then Jason and I decided to do something else.” Nico shoves his wiggly toes into his shoes and Jason breathes a sigh of relief. Percy would make so much fun of him if he knew he was getting worked up over toes. Would probably tell him he has a fetish.

 _Does_ he have a fetish? He should go home and Google that.

“I didn’t know you guys were friends,” Hazel says.

“We weren’t.” Nico sends him a smile. “We are now.”

“Really?” Hazel looks at Jason appraisingly. He has to physically grab his hand from fixing his hair. “You don’t have very good taste in friends, Nico.”

“You can’t say that,” Jason protests over Nico’s giggles. “We’re friends too.”

“I don’t know, Jason. I think I’ll have to play the overprotective sister with a shotgun now.”

Her eyes twinkle knowingly and Jason can feel himself blushing again. Nico frowns. “Huh?”

“Oh, nothing,” Hazel grins, opening the car door. “Come on, it’s almost curfew. And I have so much to tell you about today.”

“Me too,” Nico agrees. He climbs out of the car and shuts the door, and Jason’s heart drops right down to his tippy toes (holy crap, he _does_ have a fetish) at the thought of Nico leaving without even saying goodbye. 

That is, until Nico bends down and folds his arms over the window. “So, Percy’s house tomorrow?”

Jason grins. “See you there.”

Nico nods and starts to move away, but without realizing it, Jason grabs a hold of his wrist. It’s the first time he’s actually touched him and his skin tingles. When Nico looks back at him, there’s the lightest hint of a blush on his face.

Jason’s tongue feels like cotton. He feels he should say something while not knowing what, and the rational part of his mind is telling him _not yet you literally got to know him only today_. Combined with the look on Nico’s face and everything that happened today spinning through his mind, what comes out of Jason’s mouth is: “I won’t leave you.”

Nico gapes at him. His blush deepens. “What?”

“If you take me along. To a party. I won’t leave you by yourself.”

It’s quite possible the stupidest thing he could say – who even cares about parties? Certainly not Nico, he made that clear – but instead of laughing at him, a wide, brilliant smile spreads over Nico’s face.

“Then I’d be happy to go with you,” he says, his voice as gentle as his eyes, his skin smooth underneath Jason’s thumb.

Something bright and giddy and _breath-taking_ builds up in Jason’s chest then, swelling when he looks out the window to wave Nico goodbye one last time. He doesn’t know what it is, can’t put a name to it no matter how much he tries, but it’s something he’s feeling for the very first time in his life. 

And it won’t be the last.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is boombashkas. come say hi, tell me how you liked the fic, and if you drop a prompt, i promise i won't let it grow uncontrollably long like i did with this one. hope you guys enjoyed the fic!
> 
> kudos, comments, bookmarks are greatly appreciated (and i mean greatly. like, a lot. seriously, tell me if you liked it.)


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